How To Prepare For Tough Mudder

The last 3 years, we have organised a gym trip to take on the Tough Mudder - here is a concise overview from my experience on how to prepare beforehand, and what to bring on the day.

Training Considerations

Although the obstacles can be difficult and really push you out of your comfort zone, the toughest part of the event for many is the constant movement over hilly terrain.

15km hiking up and down hills for 3-4 hours can be arduous work for anyone that isn't used to hiking in general, or moving one foot in front of the other for long periods of time.

The best preparation you can do on the lead up to the race, is to get out for a couple hours at a time and just walk. You can make this interesting by getting out in the peak district and gradually picking more difficult routes with plenty of inclines. Failing that, just getting out and walking anywhere at a faster pace to improve cardio fitness.

Equally, to conquer the obstacles themselves and power through the hiking, a full body strength training program will go a very long way to making the course more enjoyable.

A couple of considerations would be different variations of grip training and jumping/ plyometrics...

For grip, any heavy pulling exercises will help - rows, pull-ups, pulldowns, deadlifts etc.

My favourite and easiest way to incorporate grip work is to add dead hangs between sets of exercises, or before/after sessions for a few sets. This is literally just hanging from a bar and getting used to holding your own bodyweight (which everyone should be able to do!)

Dead hangs are really 'low hanging fruit' that are one of the most transferable requirements for many obstacles throughout the course.

Next up is jumping - I will write a full article on this, but here are the cliff notes for now...

Not everyone's favourite type of training, but in my opinion, essential for any adult who wants to move better, take up running and definitely taking on an obstacle course.

Amongst many benefits, the main one that will transfer across to an obstacle race is power and explosiveness - the rate at which you can use your strength. For example, jumping over a wall! It's okay being strong, but many fail clearing obstacles because they never practice using that strength through plyometric movements.

Another very important reason is joint and tendon health, as well as improving bone density.

If you're going from the office chair to taking up running in any form, your body is just not going to be prepared for the repetitive impact and stress. Hence why many people suffer with shin splints, rolled ankles and inflamed (even torn) joints/ tendons...

The last time most adults ever did any kind of jumping was either back at school, playing sports recreationally or maybe in the garden with their kids, or grandkids - so it is important you start off with basic drills and gradually ramp them up in difficulty and intensity, to get your body primed and resilient. Lifting weights from A to B won't do that.

Like your grip training, it doesn't have to be much, but rather consistent.

Start with low intensity pogos, or make it more engaging with a skipping rope. These can be done as part of a warm-up or between sets.

You can then begin to add in basic jump patterns, such as broad jumps, vertical jumps and skater jumps. I like to program these into supersets with upper body exercises especially, for two main reasons:

1) Give the upper body a rest whilst continuing to move, rather than pairing them with lower body exercise that could effect the performance and technique if your legs are already fatigued.

2) The display of power from simply jumping can actually transfer over to your upper body lifts! *sciencey nervous system reasons*

So to summarise the training; keep lifting weights, get out and hike, hang from stuff to build vice-like grip and jump to improve power and protect your joints.

What To Wear

First and most important consideration is footwear.

Don't wear anything fresh out of the box - besides getting absolutely battered by the conditions and potentially ruined, most shoes need breaking in, and you don't want to find out the hard way with blisters from 15km of moving in them.

It will also make it a lot easier if you have trainers with good grip on the sole. Trail running shoes are typically the best for this - I bought some cheaper ones from Decathlon before last year's Mudder and they held up brilliantly, and I still use them for daily dog walks today.

My only other recommendation really (for comfort), is compressive cycling shorts, underneath regular shorts, to help prevent mud from getting 'everywhere'. Obviously for the ladies who may wear leggings that wouldn't apply with them being skin tight. Pro-tip from Joe B before my first race a couple of years ago!

What Else To Bring

Your ticket and ID.

Just like when going to the airport, you ain't getting on the flight without it. They may require ID to check that you aren't using somebody else's ticket, as you have to sign a waiver when purchasing.

A towel, sliders/ flip-flops and body wash for the showers after.

They are basically hoses with gun attachments to blow all the excess mud off you. There are separate male and female tents where you can change into your dry clothing - which you also want to bring.

And finally a bag to put your phone, keys etc in whilst you tackle on the race.

I usually take a drawstring bag and then an extra carrier bag or wet bag to put all my mucky clothes in.

At then finish line you receive a beer, electrolytes, energy bars and the sacred finisher headband and medal.

There are food and drink vendors too, so some form of contactless payment is ideal - as you'll be starving!

The main thing is to embrace the challenge, push yourself outside of your comfort zone and enjoy it!

We start and finish as a team no matter what, so you will have everyone pushing you on when it gets tough - but help yourself out by making sure you're prepared and not going in blind!